Bill Roache not guilty: CPS insists it will carry on doing its 'duty' by charging celebrities

Prosecutors insist they will continue in their “duty” of putting celebrities on trial despite William Roache becoming the latest high-profile figure to be cleared of historic sex abuse charges.

Coronation Street star Roache, 81, was unanimously found not guilty of two counts of rape and four of indecent assault by a jury at Preston Crown Court on Thursday.

The Crown Prosecution Service, already facing claims of a “witch-hunt” following the acquittal of another Coronation Street actor, Michael Le Vell, last year, was forced onto the defensive, saying Roache’s case “was treated like any other”.

But Roache’s supporters suggested the CPS was “over-compensating” for its failure to pursue Jimmy Savile. Senior barristers said the Roache verdict would only increase the pressure on the CPS when it decides whether to charge other celebrities on bail over historic sex abuse claims, including Freddie Starr, Paul Gambaccini and Jimmy Tarbuck.

Roache claimed he had never met the women who accused him of sex attacks in the 1960s, and one of the charges he faced had to be dropped part way through his trial after his accuser admitted she had “no actual memory” of the alleged assault. The recollections of other accusers proved to be faulty when tested in court.

Roache, who has played Ken Barlow on screen since 1960, emerged from court flanked by his children to say: “In these situations there are no winners and I think we should all be much kinder to ourselves. Now if you will excuse me I would like to get back to work.”

Bill Roache was supported by his family throughout the trial

Trying Roache over allegations dating back 50 years was a high-stakes gamble for the CPS which has now backfired with potentially far-reaching consequences.

John Cooper QC, one of the country’s leading barristers, said: “The CPS must consider each particular case on its merits and will not be overly affected by individual verdicts, although they will be well aware of the developing catalogue of acquittals in the most recent historical cases.”

Christine Hamilton, the wife of the former Tory MP Neil Hamilton, who has also faced false sex abuse allegations in the past, said: “There does feel like there is an element of the witch hunt going on here. The authorities let people down over Jimmy Savile and I do wonder if we are now seeing the result of an over compensation in the way they are pursuing cases.”

Ken Morley, who played Reg Holdsworth in Coronation Street, said: “Considering the Michael Le Vell farce, they should be careful about the waste of taxpayers’ money.

“My heart goes out to Bill. We all knew it was nonsense from the outset.”

Other Coronation Street actors, including Beverley Callard and Antony Cotton, expressed their support via Twitter.

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Antony Cotton - Finally on my way home from London. Lovely night at the &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&amp;q=%23broadcastawards" target="_blank"&gt;#broadcastawards&lt;/a&gt;. As for today's news, the truth will always out...&lt;/noframe&gt;

Nazir Afzal, the chief crown prosecutor for the North West and the CPS national lead on child sexual exploitation, denied being a “celeb hunter” following the Le Vell case last year.

He said: “When serious allegations are made and the evidence in a case passes the prosecution test it is right that a jury considers the evidence.

“We have a duty to those who make complaints of serious offences to listen to the allegations, and assess the evidence against the same evidential standards we use for all criminal cases, no matter who makes the complaint, or who the complaint is against.

“This case was treated like any other - what mattered were the allegations and the evidence and nothing else, and we fully respect the decisions of the jury.”

The CPS’s own rules state that there must be a “realistic prospect of conviction” before a case can go before a jury.

The question with which prosecutors must now grapple is whether other juries might agree with Roache’s barrister Louise Blackwell QC, who said the “spectre” of Jimmy Savile haunted the trial, and that: “In the post Jimmy Savile era, once someone makes an allegation, it's got to go to court, no sense will prevail, it has to go to court… the Jimmy Savile crisis of conscience means that a fair investigation does not take place.”

As well as the recent high-profile acquittals, the CPS decided not to charge several others who spent months on police bail.

Jim Davidson, the radio presenter Mike Osman, and BBC producers Ted Beston and Wilfred De’ath were all arrested under Operation Yewtree, the police investigation which followed Savile’s posthumous exposure as a paedophile. None of them were charged.

To date the BBC presenter Stuart Hall, who was not part of Yewtree, is the only celebrity to be convicted of historic sex abuse charges since the Savile scandal came to light, following his guilty pleas last year.

Roache, meanwhile, will be able to resume his career on Coronation Street, in which he has not appeared since his arrest.

ITV said in a statement: “We look forward to talking to Bill soon about his return to work.”

Throughout Bill Roache’s trial, he was accompanied to court by his daughter Verity and two of his sons, Linus and James.

In a show of her unstinting support for her 81-year-old father, blonde Verity entered Preston Crown Court each day with her hand on his shoulder.